


Meeting too Late

by WSbrat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Death from Old Age, Falling In Love, It Will Be Okay, M/M, Old Age, Sad, Sad Ending, falling in love too late, it's a gentle love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28677708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WSbrat/pseuds/WSbrat
Summary: What if Draco and Harry fell in love when it was too late? What if they fell in love anyway?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 44





	Meeting too Late

What if Harry and Draco end up in a nursing home?

What if Harry and Draco end up in the  _ same  _ nursing home?

At first, they find each other insufferable. Harry with his endless pranks against the staff and Draco with his fondness of being just-this-side of too particular - even in old age. The moment they come near the other, they start bickering. Usually the bickering is over the most trivial things (“never learned how to dress, did you, Potter?” “Hey, Malfoy, didn’t you wear the same robe yesterday? Must be losing your touch.”)

Eventually, the nurses start to notice the smaller changes that happen when they’re near each other. Their eyes brighten and their speech improves; they have more energy and verve. So the staff begin to plan Harry and Draco’s day accordingly so they come into more contact.

\---

Slowly, they end up talking more than they bicker. Then they start to stay up later and later, until the only sounds they hear are the lilting melodies coming from the radio down the hall that the overnight nurse plays. They talk about anything and everything. They talk about what their lives were like, how they managed to burn the roof of their mouths and couldn’t taste anything for a whole week, why they did what they did for a living, what their favorite age was,  _ everything _ .

They talk about the moment they realized they were old.

_ When I went shopping in Diagon Alley for Christmas presents. People wouldn’t move out of my way anymore. I guess being jostled about by the crowd is how people usually get places but I did not care for it, I can tell you that,  _ Harry chuckles.

Draco smiles with him,  _ Why, did they not recognize you? My god, I think I see why, is tha- is that a  _ wrinkle  _ I see?  _ Draco brings his finger to the side of Harry’s eye in mock-horror. Harry bats his hand away and laughs even louder.

_ Don’t you know that it’s considered rude to point out someone's aging?  _ Harry jokes. _ What about you? _

_ Well, I realized it when no amount of charms or potions or even old fashioned muggle serums could get rid of my age spots. I ended up holed up in my house for over a week. _

They laugh until they wake up the person a room over.

\---

As the days whittle on, their conversations veer towards the war. They teeter along the edge, neither one wanting to delve into the murky waters of their shared past. 

It’s only after they go to sleep some weekday night that Harry braves a whisper to it.

_ I don’t know if I ever really got over it. _

Draco is quiet for a long time.

_ I don’t think I did, either.  _

Then they both fell into a fitful sleep. 

\---

It takes another nine days before they approach the topic again. It’s a warm night, the windows are open to let in the soft breeze. Draco is staring at his left arm. 

_ Even after all these years, it never faded. _

Harry pulls out his hand, where the jagged lines are still raised and stark against his aged skin.

_ Mine didn’t, either.  _

Draco looks over at Harry’s scar while Harry looks over at Draco’s. 

_ Did you ever think that it would just - go away when you got old?  _ Draco reaches out to ghost his fingers over Harry’s hand. __

_ Yeah.  _ Harry lets Draco trace the lettering, feeling comfort in how gentle he is.  _ Yeah, I did. _

They’re silent for a while. Nothing but the frogs and crickets singing into the night. Harry upturns his palm until his fingers are laced with Draco’s.

_ I don’t blame you, you know. We were just kids.  _

_ We were just kids,  _ Draco echos,  _ on opposite sides of a war.  _

They stare at each other. Harry can see his own decades of pain reflected back to him from Draco's eyes. 

This is the night they realize what was asked of the other. How Harry was made to protect the wizarding world (when he was only an  _ infant _ ) - because he survived when he shouldn’t have. How Draco was made to protect his parents from the horrors Voldemort promised upon them should a single hair on Draco’s head fall out of line. The constant fear, the savagery they were too young to witness and the savagery no one should ever witness.

This is the night they realize that they're the same. They’ve always been the same. They talk about it until the reminiscent pain becomes too much and the open window suddenly isn’t letting in enough air. 

\---

When they first moved into the same room, they would just let each other be after waking up from a nightmare, too timid to offer help. Now, Harry will crawl into Draco’s bed to hold him and Draco does the same. Eventually they stop sleeping in separate beds all together. 

Draco meets Harry’s family. Harry meets Draco’s family. Their kids are happy for them. Their grandkids talk their ears off. 

They don’t know when it happened, but they realize they fell in love. 

_ Can you believe we had all this time and it took us until our deathbeds to get here?  _ Harry says one morning while they walk around the gardens after breakfast. Their hands found each other at some point. 

_ Do you honestly think it could have happened any other way? _

\---

Harry notices first. He sees the sluggishness in Draco’s movements, how it’s getting harder and harder for him to get up. His haggard breathing when they go for walks. They don’t stay up as late, Draco can’t keep his eyes open (though he desperately tries).

Harry wakes up one morning without Draco. He doesn’t know how, but he knows Draco isn’t here anymore. Harry turns to him, looks for the rise and fall of his chest that he knows won’t come. He buzzes for a nurse, then places his last kiss on his loves’ forehead. 

_ I’ll miss you. _

\---

A day after the funeral, Harry gets a visitor. It’s Draco’s lawyer, enacting his will. Harry receives an envelope. 

He waits until it’s night, when all the other residents are asleep. When he misses Draco the most.

_ Dear Harry, _

_ I know I wasn’t always the best person I could have been in my life, I never shied away from this fact. I knew and accepted it, and I always tried to be better. What I didn’t tell you, though, is that you are the main reason.  _

_ After the war, my family was taken and I had no one. I didn’t know what to do - I had never been so alone before. My days were spent wasting away in the manor, regretting everything I did.  _

_ Then one day, about two years after the end of the war, you paid me a visit. I have no idea if you remember what you said, but I remember every last word.  _

_ ‘I know you probably don’t want to see me, and I’m really sorry I took your wand, but I needed to give it back. You lost everything, I think it’s at least fair you have this.’ _

_ That was it. You blurted it out, like you had rehearsed it all morning and were trying to get it all out before you lost your nerve. I don’t know why this small moment stuck with me for so long. Perhaps it’s because it was the first kind thing anyone had done for me since my mother. Maybe it was because I didn’t expect you, of all people, at my door; let alone you at my door with my wand. I thought you were going to curse me, give me what I deserved and ended me right there in my own home.  _

_ But you didn’t. You,  _ apologized. 

_ Harry, you apologized to me because I lost everything. Even though you were the boy who lost everything before he could even remember it. And I served the man who did that to you. Not a single day went by that I didn’t think of this. _

_ I never thought I’d ever have the chance to know you. But by some stroke of luck, I did. And it may have been when we’re both on our deathbeds, but it happened anyway. _

_ I do wonder what our lives would have been like if we had come to each other in our youth, but I suppose that’s a moot conversation at this point. Maybe we would have adopted, maybe we would have travelled the world, maybe we would have gotten sick of each other within the first three months and never spoke again (though I doubt it). _

_ I’m happy I spent the end of my life with you.  _

_ I love you, Harry James Potter.  _

_ Love,  _

_ Draco Malfoy _

_ \--- _

When the nurses came to check on Harry the next morning, they found the letter clutched in cold hands, his body covered in one of Draco’s favorite shirts (because it still smelled like him). 

And when Harry was buried, they buried him with the letter. The part that no one saw, was where Harry scrawled in his messy, spiky handwriting:

_ I love you, too, Draco Lucius Malfoy.  _


End file.
